Cliff Notes

1) Howard Dean has now come out in favor of just going over the fiscal cliff. He says that it will mean a recession but it will cut the deficit by the most.

2) A number of other far left Democrats have also endorsed the idea of going over the fiscal cliff. It will mean a big bump in tax revenues and a major cut in defense spending.

3) We are still waiting to hear Obama's plan for cutting spending to avoid the sequestration cuts. The latest is that he just wants to do the tax cuts and leave the spending cuts for later.

4) Republicans are still talking with the Democrats as if the Democrats seriously want to avoid the cliff. This is a big mistake. Republicans should just announce that they have already made a proposal in the form of the budget passed by the House and that they are waiting for the Obama proposal before voting on anything. They should pull an Obama and just announce the principles that have to be met:

A. Spending has to be cut by an amount equal to the sequestration cuts.
B. Entitlements must be addressed in a meaningful way.
C. Revenues cannot make up more than one quarter of the total measures to close the budget gap.

5) There is a need for leadership if the fiscal cliff is going to be avoided. Sadly, with Obama, there will not be any.